Frank:

I've got all those varieties many on multigrafted trees. My favorites are: F King, F Grenade, and Geo Pride. Least favorite: F Queen and Dapple Dandy. These would benefit in your climate from season extension and some heat increase in your high tunnel provided it doesn't get too hot on your warmest days. My greenhouse gets to about 95F, maybe 100 on the hottest end. Above that the fruit starts to show heat injury.

I have one, about five years old, but all the grafts died. I probably didn't do a good job of nurturing it, but that's the way I roll, so my trees have to deal.

I'm really excited (i better be for $125)... I plan on using pretty big containers (30 gallon maybe). I may put them under plastic, but not until spring 2013...because I highly doubt there will be any flowers/fruit this year. My biggest concern is insects (pc, rose chafer, jap beetle) and brown rot.

I ordered a 4/1 pluot from Bay Laural(F. Grenade, Splash, Emerald Drop and Geo Pride) and they suggested I change my order because zone 6 was unsuitable. I thanked them and said I wouldn't plant inground outdoors, my containers will be about 20 gal.
Dan

Good to hear you are up to the challenge on this sort of an undertaking Frank. Not only the Pluots, but also container fruit trees in general that is. I'm sure there will be a some fellow Northerner's looking forwards to your reports on your future results. If I were to get involved in the same sort of thing, I would also look hard at the multi's. Not just Pluot's, but also Peaches and Cots. I have been mighty tempted, just don't have the means to make it all work out. Such as an available accommodating sunlit area to place them during the Summer months, and then Winter storage as well. Darn it anyhow! I wish you much success on your Pluots.

immarcus-

Yeah. No way I'd plant these in the ground here, unless I had good winter protection. I easily hit -20F most years.

Questor-

I've had container success and failures. Nectarines were a bomb...they flowered, fruited fine..but brown rot and insect pressure was overwhelming. They all were turned into firewood. My container sweet cherry did great last year (Stella). Container blueberries do fine. I have a lot of container peaches, that may flower this year. Having a large attached garage makes it possible. I plan on insulated (ceiling/garage door) this summer so it should stay even warmer in there.

Franktank,
Your comment on your container Stella sweet cherry has piqued my interest. Did you actually get cherries on it? How cold does your garage get in winter? How big does the cherry tree get in the container. When I put a thermometer in our unheated, attached one-car garage in a cold spell, it registered zero degrees. It would probably get even lower when we leave for any winter vacation. How cold can the pots get? Thanks. Northwoodswis

It's frustrating that nurseries tend to specify chill hours needed for pluots, but not upper zone limits. Bay Laurel's website doesn't.

But they said I couldn't grow apriums here, yet I find that I can. Some years.

North-

Its attached, but it still gets very cold. I think the one winter (not this one!) it was below 0F in there a few times. The cherry had plenty of fruit, which tasted great. Have no idea what the root temps got to, but I can tell you that I was moving around some blueberries yesterday and the pots were like giant ice cubes...rock hard.

Stella sweet cherry:

{{gwi:63326}}

This is how bad I was. I brought it inside the garage EVERY nite until the fruit started turning. Only one time did I find PC damage and the B$#$TARD was still in the tree when I brought it into the garage (I squished him). Pretty much tells me that PC are rarely active during the day.

Growing in pots (if you have the ability), is probably the way to go for people that don't need much fruit and want to try oddball things (not zone friendly).

Frank:

How often do you water that tree in summer? The top is about the same size as mine but the pot is probably three times bigger.

Was just reading about an ole boy in MN that has 80 or so potted trees, 90 gal I think, that he moves into an insulated building in winter. Says me gets 40 lbs peaches off one tree. Also had apricot, grapes, berries, and cherries. You guys up north could do all I do with the right setup.

I bought a high tech clock at walmart for about $20 that has a remote temperature readout. I can monitor my garage temperture from my lazyboy, the attached garage hasn't been much below 40 deg so far this winter.
Dan

iammarcus- That may be too warm. My brother has a new home, attached 3 car garage and he has a temp sensor out there and it never goes below freezing, yet it isn't heated. The difference is that his walls are insulated, his ceiling is insulated and his garage doors are insulated...on top of that they have 2 cars being parked in there every day giving off the heat of the engine for a period of time.

Fruit-
I probably don't water enough. I always hope for rain, so i don't have to water! One of the goals is to hook up some sort of irrigation device. I'll have to trim it back probably this year before it gets too tall.

Part of me wants to just chop it back to a stump and make a "Spanish Bush"...I'd rather have very low fruiting branches on a container grown tree then a super tall spindly thing. If I do that, then i lose fruit for a couple years.

90 gallons? OMG. I'd need to upgrade dollys for that or get a forklift. I wonder where he gets them and how much? Even the 15 gallon plastic pots are expensive, and while you can buy cheap plastic containers at Menards for $5 (25 gallon or so), they fall apart after about 3 years and the sun destroys the plastic (no UV protection).

Frank:

Link below to article about Richard Thompson in Isle MN. He uses old fuel barrels cut in half. The little blurp says 90 tubs and 1500 lbs per tub. He moves them with a fork lift or similar.

There's another story in the same issue about him growing vegetables all winter in a manufactured home that was converted to a greenhouse. It's solid windows on the south side.

Unfortunately to get the whole story you have to pay.

Here is a link that might be useful: MN fruit and greenhouse

Franktank,
That is interesting about the plum curculios only eating at night. I wonder if you had a bush cherry, like Carmen Jewel, and if the plum curculios became a problem in your area, if you threw a sheet over it each night if that would keep you from having to spray poisons on the bush. I'll have to file that tidbit of information in my brain for in case I ever need it.
Northwoodswis

Interesting about the guy in MN. I wonder if he adds any additional heat to his storage facility? Pretty cool others are doing it. I've read old (like 1800's) journals off Google from Wisconsin agriculture and it seems many were growing less hardy fruits (peaches) in pots up here. I suppose back in those days, you didn't have interstates and trucking to get "ok" tasting peaches from South Carolina to Madison in a few days of picking.

I still have a lot to learn with container growing. Still not sure if I'm fertilizing enough, water is always an issue (especially when we have dry spells). I pretty much watered every day it didn't rain last summer. I think as long as you have appropriate drainage, you can't really over water a tree in a container (during the warm wx).

Frank:

You can over water potted trees just like in-ground in regards to fruit eating quality. I'm making an effort to pay more attention to that aspect of potted culture this year. I've seen people put plastic over the soil in the pot to hold out the rain. That was for figs with self watering containers in PA.

Your sweet cherry in that big pot shouldn't need watering every day unless it's a lot bigger this year.